Bad Time to Play Politics

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has picked the worst time to play politics when it comes to Iraq, Turkey and Armenia.

I worked for Denny Hastert when he went out to campaign for Jim Rogan and promised him a vote on an Armenian Genocide Resolution. The reaction from the Turkish government was swift. They threatened to cancel billions of dollars of military contracts with American companies like Boeing. They promised to kick us out of Incirlik Air Force Base. They told the president that they wouldn’t help us out on just about anything we needed help on in the Middle East.

It was bad. President Clinton pleaded with Speaker Hastert: Don’t threaten our own national security for domestic politics. After thinking long and hard, the Speaker took the right route. He told Rogan he couldn’t put the resolution on the floor. And Rogan ended up losing his election. Hastert sacrificed a congressional seat in order to protect America’s national security.

Now, almost a decade later, a new Speaker and a new situation.

We are now in a real war with terrorists. We have more than 100,000 troops in Iraq. We have the Turks threatening to invade Kurdistan, just as Joe Biden talks about creating Kurdistan out of the ashes of Iraq. We have a more Islamic-leaning Turkish government. We are a fighting a global war on terror, where we need the help of the Turks more than ever.

And Nancy Pelosi has decided to bring the same resolution to the floor, threatening our national security by playing politics.

The Armenians have a legitimate beef with the Turks. The Irish have a legitimate beef with the British for what they did during the Irish Potato Famine. There are a lot of people with a lot of grievances out there.

But we are in a war with radical Islam. One of our closest allies in this fight is the Turkish government, which has had its own battles with radical Islam. Why would we stick a finger in the eye of one of our most important allies in this extraordinarily important war just for the sake of politics?

Can you imagine if the Congress decided to condemn the Brits for the Irish Potato Famine in 1943? It doesn’t make any sense.

This is a bad time to play politics, Madame Speaker, especially on this issue, follow the lead of your predecessor. Choose American national security over domestic politics.